Lead AI Engineer

Ai Futures; Berlin; On-site; EUR 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Job summary

Ai Futures in Berlin is seeking a Lead AI Engineer to own the architecture of our first-generation product and lead the technical direction from the outset.

You will work directly with the founders, ship 0→1 AI systems, mentor engineers, and help shape the team as the company builds product, AI strategy and scalable infrastructure.

This on-site role offers a competitive salary and meaningful equity, with the chance to influence a pre-seed/seed startup from the ground up.

Qualifications

• Strong AI / Software Engineering background.
• Proven experience shipping LLM or Agentic AI products into production.
• Experience leading, mentoring or setting technical direction for other engineers.
• Founding Engineer or early technical hire experience is highly desirable.
• Pre-seed, seed or Series A startup experience is particularly attractive.
• Evidence of building products 0→1, not simply maintaining established systems.

Responsibilities

• Build and own production LLM and Agentic AI systems from 0→1.
• Turn ambiguous product ideas into working, scalable technology.
• Design AI agents, orchestration and multi-step workflows.
• Make key architecture and system design decisions.
• Build evaluation systems and continuously improve AI performance.
• Solve problems around reliability, latency, quality and cost.
• Rapidly prototype, test with users and iterate based on real-world feedback.
• Establish technical standards without adding unnecessary process.
• Work directly with founders on product and AI strategy.
• Mentor engineers and help shape the future technical team.

Job description

Lead AI Engineer | 0→1 AI Startup | Berlin

Location: Berlin - On-site

Employment: Full-time

Package: Competitive salary + Equity

AI Futures has been exclusively retained to identify a Lead AI Engineer for a well-funded, early-stage AI startup in Berlin.

We're looking for a genuine 0→1 builder, someone who has taken AI products from an idea or messy early prototype through to something customers actually use.

You’ll take significant ownership of the company’s AI architecture and core product, working directly with the founders while remaining deeply hands-on.

What You'll Be Doing

• Build and own production LLM and Agentic AI systems from 0→1.
• Turn ambiguous product ideas into working, scalable technology.
• Design AI agents, orchestration and multi-step workflows.
• Make key architecture and system design decisions.
• Build evaluation systems and continuously improve AI performance.
• Solve problems around reliability, latency, quality and cost.
• Rapidly prototype, test with users and iterate based on real-world feedback.
• Establish technical standards without adding unnecessary process.
• Work directly with founders on product and AI strategy.
• Mentor engineers and help shape the future technical team.

Who We're Looking For

• Strong AI / Software Engineering background.
• Proven experience shipping LLM or Agentic AI products into production.
• Evidence of building products 0→1, not simply maintaining established systems.
• Strong software architecture and engineering fundamentals.
• Comfortable making technical decisions without an existing playbook.
• Product-minded - able to balance engineering quality with the need to ship, learn and iterate quickly.
• High ownership and comfortable operating with significant ambiguity.
• Founding Engineer or early technical hire experience is highly desirable.
• Pre-seed, seed or Series A startup experience is particularly attractive.
• Experience leading, mentoring or setting technical direction for other engineers.

Why Join?

• Own a core AI product from an early stage.
• Work directly with the founders.
• Genuine influence over product, architecture and technical direction.
• Build rather than inherit.
• Stay deeply hands-on while growing into broader technical leadership.
• Help shape the engineering team and culture from the beginning.
• Meaningful equity participation and long-term upside.

We're particularly interested in people who are at their best when the product isn't finished, the architecture isn't predetermined and there isn't already a team of 50 engineers around them.